Yahoo Buys Polyvore, Enters E-Commerce Game With Purchase Of Social Fashion Shopping Site

Yahoo broadened its ecosystem Friday by acquiring Polyvore, a social shopping site that helps its more than 20 million users discover new trends and items in the world of fashion.

For Yahoo, this purchase fits right into CEO Marissa Mayer's strategy of building out a base of mobile, social, video and advertising businesses. Similar to Pinterest, Polyvore is a tool that relies heavily on images to help users find new items they may want to purchase. Retailers can bring their items front and center to Polyvore users using cost-per-click ads.

“Polyvore has built an excellent team, a category leading product, and a strong business based on a highly engaged community,” said Simon Khalaf, Yahoo’s senior vice president of publisher products, in a statement. “The combination of Yahoo’s industry-leading digital content with Polyvore’s expertise in community and commerce has outstanding potential."

Upon regulatory approval of the deal, Yahoo said it plans to continue operating Polyvore as it is, but the newly acquired company's employees will join the Yahoo team at the company's Sunnyvale, California, offices. Polyvore CEO Jess Lee will remain in her position and report to Khalaf.

"Going forward, Polyvore will still be the same Polyvore that you love, but we’ll have more resources to make it even bigger and better," Lee said in a note to Polyvore's users. "We’ve accomplished a lot on our own, but together with Yahoo we can take Polyvore to its fullest potential."

Yahoo has been busy expanding its product offerings this month in addition to the purchase of Polyvore. Earlier this week Yahoo announced an app called Livetext that lets users send each other text and audio-less video messages, and a few weeks ago the company launched Yahoo Sports Daily Fantasy, entering the growing market of daily fantasy sports.